New mayor starts off on left foot

It was Cherelle Parker’s first day as mayor — had you heard she was Philadelphia’s first female mayor? — and she was leading with her left foot, feeding into two unfortunate stereotypes.

Based on reporting on her first day in office, which is a  traditional assignment, the Philadelphia Inquirer said Parker arrived about 90 minutes late for her first scheduled event of the day, a very serious one, too. 

When reading anything in the Inquirer, remember that its publisher confessed to heading a racist institution and pledged its commitment to being “antiracist” in the future.

I disagree that the newspaper was a racist institution. So did many past staffers who felt disrespected by the publisher. I mention this because some people see any criticism of a Black person as “racist,” and must be avoided.

Here is the Inquirer’s account of the start of Mayor Parker’s first day:

“It was her first full day on the job, and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker was running behind schedule.

“Packed into a room at Girard College, dozens of people — the city’s school superintendent, a City Council member, top administration officials, and two dozen teenagers — were waiting for Philadelphia’s brand new mayor. She was supposed to appear at 10:30 a.m. to begin the city’s Madtin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

“By 11:35, they started the event without her.” Imagine a roomful of people hanging around for more than an hour, waiting for their mayor.

The stereotypes I mentioned?

Women are always late, and so are Black people, who even privately joke about what they call CPT — Colored Peoples Time. (Keep in mind I am reporting stereotypes. I am not endorsing them.) 

And for a Black mayor to be late for a MLK event, that just doesn’t look good. Disrespectful, one might say.

I will note mayors often run late, but I will also note you get one chance to make a good first impression, and Parker made hers by being almost 90 minutes late, in what the Inquirer called part of the “chaos” of leading a big city.

Chaos? Is that an excuse for extreme tardiness, from a one-time school teacher?

So the lateness was one issue.

Another was blaming her staff, when asked about her schedule. She said she was following her staff’s lead.

“So, one, they didn’t tell me. I thought that after the campaign, that I would — full disclosure — have just a little bit more discretion over controlling my schedule,” she said.

Madame Mayor, learn this phrase from an old white Democrat, Harry S Truman: The buck stops here.

For someone who has been an elected official for decades, your surprise at who runs your schedule came as a surprise.

You appointed the staff, you are the boss. Don’t look for a scapegoat when something goes wrong.

That’s not leadership, that’s finger-pointing.